Posted on 05/06/2005 6:41:57 AM PDT by calcowgirl
SACRAMENTO – Legal experts had mixed views yesterday about whether the courts would allow California to create a border patrol to control illegal immigration, if voters approved a proposed initiative next year.
And a federal agency fact sheet on a 1996 law that allows state and local police to enforce immigration law says the officers do not become full-time immigration officers and do not conduct immigration sweeps.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he hasn't read the proposed initiative, but in a brief reply to a question at a news conference he said he would push for a comprehensive federal solution to illegal immigration.
The initiative was filed this week by Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, and the group Rescue California, a Republican-oriented organization that helped gather signatures for the recall election that put Schwarzenegger in office.
Haynes also has introduced a proposed constitutional amendment in the Legislature, ACA 20, that mirrors his state border patrol initiative. Democrats have questioned the cost of creating a new state agency when the state is in a budget crunch.
An attorney for a large law firm in Memphis, Tenn., that represents immigrants and operates a decade-old Web site, visalaw.com, said creating a state border patrol is a "tremendous undertaking" with many problems.
"I guess legally it could be done," said Greg Siskind of the Siskind Susser law firm. "I don't know from a practical point of view how workable it would be."
An official of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which has more than 8,000 members who practice and teach immigration law, said immigration is clearly controlled by the federal government.
"I don't think such an initiative (to set up a state border patrol) would survive a court challenge," said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the association.
Haynes contends that creation of a state border patrol would be authorized by a 1996 federal immigration law that allows state and local police to enforce immigration law.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Section 287(g) of the 1996 immigration law allows state and local police to detain illegal immigrants who may pose a criminal or security threat.
But the state and local agencies must first negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the immigration agency, which then trains the officers and provides supervision and support.
"State and local officers do not become full-time immigration officers, and they don't conduct immigration sweeps," said a fact sheet on Section 287(g) distributed by the federal agency.
Schwarzenegger, who has praised the "Minuteman" volunteer border watches in Arizona, told reporters the issue of illegal immigration has been "kind of sidestepped" and he would push for more federal action.
He said the federal government should address "all of those issues – the guest workers programs, or if it is what to do with the people that are here illegally in this country . . . all of this ought to be addressed."
President Bush has made a broad proposal that foreigners and illegal immigrants be allowed to obtain permits to work here legally. What would happen when the permits expire isn't clear.
U.S. Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have proposed that illegal immigrants who have a long work history can pay a fine, undergo a background check and eventually become eligible for citizenship.
We, according to communist docturn laid down over 50 years ago, cannot achieve one world socialist government until the standard of living is equalized which called for ours to be lowered to 3rd world statis since they knew full well that there was no way to bring their standard up to ours.
Bush was raised to be a one worlder and everything he has done, including his appointments, further that goal.
Riiiiight...that is why he has challenged the UN at every turn, called them irrelevant, nominated Bolton, killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court and the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty (gun control), has told the UN to pack sand on the Kyoto treaty and went to war in Iraq without their approval. You need to wrap your tin foil hat a little tighter dear.
You forgot his appointing La Raza's Gonzalez AG to make sure that none of our laws against illegals can be enforced.
"You forgot his appointing La Raza's Gonzalez AG to make sure that none of our laws against illegals can be enforced."
Exactly!
Thank you!
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
INS Closes Essential Checkpoints Due to Insufficient Manpower
Established ICE in 2003:
ICE Border Security & Immigration Enforcement Fact Sheet
Established U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT), Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), and National Security Entry Exit Registration System (NSEERS)
In fiscal year 2003, DRO detained more than 230,000 aliens and oversaw a docket of more than 800,000 alien cases. In the same year, DRO completed over 140,000 removals of aliens who had been issued final orders to leave the country.
Between March 1, 2003 and February 28, 2004, DRO removed from the United States more than 78,000 criminal aliens and an additional 68,000 non-criminal aliens.
In June 2003, DRO issued “Endgame,” a strategic enforcement plan laying out the division’s goals and vision for the next decade. “Endgame” aims to remove all removable aliens from the United States and eliminate the backlog of removal cases that have not been finalized, thereby reinforcing the integrity of U.S. immigration law.
DRO’s National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP) is an initiative to apprehend, process, and remove aliens who have failed to surrender for removal or to comply with a removal order, with a special emphasis on apprehending criminal aliens. To this end, DRO has created a “Most Wanted” list of criminal aliens to solicit public assistance in locating the worst criminal alien fugitives.
DRO has also launched an Electronic Monitoring Device (EMD) pilot program as an alternative to detention for selected aliens. The electronic monitoring services are being provided by ADT at the following Field/Sub-Offices: Anchorage, Detroit, Miami, Portland, Seattle, and Orlando. Under this program, aliens awaiting immigration court hearings wear either a monitoring ankle bracelet or report telephonically to a case manager.
DRO recently announced the contract award selection to Behavioral Interventions, Inc. (BI) of Boulder Colorado for the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP). BI will provide community-based supervision of 200 illegal aliens in each of the following eight Field/Sub-Offices: Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, St. Paul, Denver, Kansas City, San Francisco, and Portland. The program will closely supervise illegal aliens that can be released into the community to ensure their attendance at Immigration Court hearings and compliance with Court orders.
ICE Office of Detention and Removal
Are the ports secured? No
Secure Ports - What's been accomplished
Are the MILLIONS of illegals in this country being deported? NO
See: ICE Office of Detention and Removal link, above.
Are employers who hire illegals being fined? No
As of December 2004, ICE had collected a total of $2.13 million from Iowa egg producer Austin “Jack” DeCoster, who pleaded guilty in August 2003 to aiding and abetting the employment of illegal aliens at his facilities. As part of a plea agreement, DeCoster also agreed to a five-year compliance program allowing ICE officers to access his company’s personnel records and to make unannounced employee inspections at his egg production facilities.
On October 21, 2004, in Brawley, Calif., ICE arrested three Mexican nationals working at the Brawley Beef Plant after an investigation revealed that the men had used fraudulent documents and false statements to gain employment at the meatpacking plant. The arrests were the first under Operation Safe Cities, an interagency initiative focusing on critical infrastructure sites in the Imperial Valley region of California, including airports, defense installations and bio-agriculture industries. Thus far, Operation Safe Cities has resulted in the arrest of approximately 80 unauthorized workers employed on military bases, food processing plants, defense aerospace facilities and naval shipyards.
In March 2005, ICE announced that Wal-Mart had agreed to pay a global civil settlement of $11 million to the federal government as a result of this investigation. In addition, 12 corporations that provided contracted janitorial services to Wal-Mart stores between 1998 and 2001 and were alleged to have employed illegal workers agreed to enter corporate guilty pleas to criminal immigration charges and to forfeit an additional $4 million to the United States as a result of this enforcement action.
ICE Targets Texas Firm That Supplied Illegal Workers to Restaurants in Six States – On March 14, 2005, two members of a Texas-based employment agency were arraigned in federal court in Grand Forks, N.D., on charges of conspiring to recruit more than 50 illegal aliens in Texas and supply them as low-wage workers to Chinese restaurants in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. Six defendants have been indicted in the case, two of whom have been charged with money laundering. The probe began in August 2004, when agents uncovered evidence that owners of a Grand Forks restaurant were forcing illegal alien workers to work 70 hours a week for $2 per hour. ICE agents ultimately arrested and convicted the owners. Further investigation led agents to a company called Texas Employment Agency, which was supplying illegal aliens to Chinese restaurants throughout the Midwest.
Guilty Pleas by New Mexico Restaurant Owners, $11 Million Sought -- On March 8, 2005, five of six defendants accused of money laundering, as well as hiring and harboring illegal aliens to work for substandard wages at their Albuquerque, N.M., Chinese restaurants, agreed to plead guilty to federal charges. ICE agents arrested the six individuals last year as part of a probe into the Grand China, China Wok and Great Wall restaurants. The indictments seek the forfeiture of more than $11 million in illicit proceeds that the defendants allegedly earned from this operation. The aliens exploited by the defendants paid $30,000 to $60,000 to Chinese “snakeheads” to be smuggled into the country, where they worked 60-hour weeks for little pay and no overtime compensation.
Operators of Restaurants in Five New York Counties Charged, $4 Million Seized – On Nov. 18, 2004, ICE agents in Albany detained 80 illegal aliens and arrested eight individuals who operated China Buffet restaurants in five New York counties. The leaders of this organization were accused of illegally employing Chinese and Mexican aliens for substandard wages and then using bank and investment accounts to launder the proceeds from this operation. ICE agents seized 50 bank and investment accounts as well as vehicles, real estate and other assets worth some $4 million. As part of the scheme, the defendants operated a tour bus to routinely pick up illegal aliens in New York City and transport them to Albany where they were housed and put to work.
Operators of 60 Gas Stations and Convenience Stores in Georgia Charged – On Nov. 9, 2004, an ICE investigation in Atlanta resulted in charges against 18 individuals for conspiracy and inducing and encouraging illegal aliens to reside in the United States. The primary defendants, Mansoor Karimi and his two sons, Malik and Ramzan Karimi, operated at least 60 gas stations and convenience stories in the Atlanta metro area that employed several hundred illegal aliens. According to the indictment, the defendants used illegal aliens to attain higher profits and undercut their competition by not paying the workers overtime and other employee benefits. The defendants paid their workers in cash and via paycheck, using fraudulent Social Security numbers. They concealed cash payments to their illegal workers often by inflating or fabricating vendor invoices. The indictment sought the forfeiture of millions of dollars worth of properties and bank accounts. ICE agents seized more than 25 properties and 50 bank accounts.
Firm Charged For Supplying Ilegal Aliens to Package MREs for U.S. Military – On September 30, 2004, the U.S. Attorney in Houston unsealed a federal indictment charging a Texas firm with providing illegal alien workers to a plant that packaged combat meals for the U.S. military. The indictment charged the Tollin Group Inc. (Remedy Intelligent Staffing), with conspiracy to falsify Employment Eligibility Verification Forms to conceal from the Joint Terrorism Task Force that it had illegally and unlawfully hired illegal aliens as employees to work for the Wornick Co. Wornick is a company that assembles the U.S. military's packaged food called MREs, or "Meals Ready to Eat." Wornick was the recipient of a $47.2 million contract to produce and deliver more than 1.1 million MREs between February and May 2003 to support U.S. military forces in Iraq. Ten Remedy temporary employees, who worked at Wornick and were also indicted in July 2004, have been arrested and convicted of the misdemeanor offense of fraud in connection with the unlawful possession of a false Social Security number following guilty pleas.
For further information:
Ummmm...now be sure and let me know when YOU catch up.
I'm stunned! This has got to stop.
Oh really now...found these in a search:
While Mr. Gonzales's confirmation as the first Hispanic attorney general buoyed many Hispanics, he showed no sign in his remarks on Monday of backing away from the Bush administration's efforts to speed deportation proceedings for illegal immigrants. Under Mr. Ashcroft, the Justice Department sought to streamline the process for immigration judges to hear appeals in deportation and asylum cases, and Mr. Gonzales said the system was in need of further repair.
He said that the Justice Department and federal courts were "straining under the weight of an immigration litigation system that is broken" and that illegal immigrants facing criminal charges were receiving too many chances to appeal their fates. He urged Congress to move quickly on proposals that would expedite the process.
The “inherent authority” finding of the OLC was confirmed and confused by a June 2002 letter from White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to the Migration Policy Institute, in which Gonzales stated that “state and local police have inherent authority to arrest and detain persons who are in violation of immigration laws and whose names have been placed in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC)”.
He's only refering to illegals with criminal warents againt them, hell will freeze over before he goes after the vast majority that haven't comitted a felony or the peoplew that employ them who are the big problem.
My only waste of time was talking to someone who chooses to ignore facts. Sure, there is more to be done, but you can't say we haven't made significant progress based on the facts cited. You have apparently convinced yourself otherwise and have closed your mind, but not your mouth...you remind me of some Dems I know.
Gonzales was only confirmed in February of this year, how do you know? Oh that's right, you ASSUME...ya know what they say about that.
Being not ony a member but having served on the board of La Raza he is for taking the southwestern US away from us and making it a part of Mexico, and La Raza applauded his becoming AG.
Nothing more needs to be known about that POS!
You have hit on a really good point. One of the main reasons that enforcement of immigration law is such a joke in California is because of the California legislature, California political correctness and the courts that preside over California. In addition, there is not enough court space, lawyers, judges and detention space to process all the illegals that are beign caught right now.
Thanks for your reply in agreement. I see that separating the wheat from the chaff is a serious problem for most. One that the enemy Dimocrats exploit to full advantage.
Perhaps we need a better machine. One that separates the wheat from the B/S? ;)
After the great depression started and folks started streaming into california the mayor of one of the cities ( not even the governor mind you ) sent his police to the border of California to turn away US citizens attempting to enter the state.
Now we can't even have the state turning away foreign illegals.
Boy do times change.
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